Congratulations to the Winners of theWisconsin People & Ideas 2014 Fiction Contest:

1st place: “The Walk to Makino” by Karen Loeb – Eau Claire

2nd place: “Snowglobe Policy” by Jennifer Spilburg Sauer – Madison

3rd place: “Luck” by Marilyn Shapiro Leys – Prairie du Chien

Winners of the Wisconsin People & Ideas 2014 Fiction Contest receive cash awards of $500 (first place), $250 (second place), and $100 (third place). The first-place author also receives a one-week artist residency at Shake Rag School for Arts and Crafts in Mineral Point, and all three award-winning authors will read their stories at the 2014 Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison this October.

Our honorable mention stories and authors for 2014:

“Swimming to Saba” by Shaun Melarvie– Sturgeon Bay

“John and Loretta, Circa 1967” by Mary Rodriguez– McFarland

“Night and Day” by Tom Stark – Madison

“Guardians” by Sandy Walejkos– Belleville

“Creatures of the Air” by Tim Walsh– Madison

Wisconsin People & Ideas is an independent print and online magazine that showcases fiction and poetry from new and established Wisconsin writers, highlights new works from our visual artists and photographers, and keeps readers informed about the science behind the issues that impact our way of life here in Wisconsin. We are the quarterly magazine of the nonprofit, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters.
For more information, visit wisconsinacademy.org/magazine.

This year the fiction contest lead judge is author Susanna Daniel (right), author of Sea Creatures and other novels. The 2014 contest was coordinated by Jason A. Smith, editor, Wisconsin People & Ideas, who also acted along with Aaron Fai as preliminary judges. The contest received 69 submissions from across the state of Wisconsin. All judging was done blindly and ranking was done solely on the merit of individual stories in the opinion of our judges.

Thank you to everyone who submitted stories to the 2014 fiction contest. Your participation is what makes this fiction contest one of the best showcases for Wisconsin writers. Look for the first- through third-place short stores to appear in forthcoming issues of Wisconsin People & Ideas, beginning with the spring issue in May 2014. Congratulations to all our winners and honorable mention writers and keep on writing!

Wisconsin People & Ideas thanks lead and preliminary judges for volunteering their time and efforts to the 2014 contest, and extends a special thanks to 2014 contest sponsors Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point for donating a weeklong artist residency for the first-place winner and the Wisconsin Book Festival for hosting our contest winners’ reading. More information on the contest, prizes, and sponsors and be found at wisconsinacademy.org/fictioncontest.